38 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[March 



articles of food given them when caged, and 

 on this exclusive diet they linger through two 

 or three months, but then they become emaci- 

 ated and exhausted, droop and die. Sweet, 

 liquid food alone is not sufficient to snstain 

 them ; the lack of insect food, to which they 

 are accustomed in a state of nature, invari- 

 ably brings on the final catastrophe. This fact 

 is the best proof, if, indeed, proof were needed, 

 to sliow how largely insectiverous they are. 

 Some species bear their brief confinement 

 more patiently than otliers ; they seem recon- 

 ciled from the first to tiie change of circum- 

 stances, and make few efforts to escape ; 

 others, again, vainly beat against their prison 

 walls nntil they become exhausted, and in 

 this way often kill themselves ; a few manifest 

 a sullen disposition and mope and die ere 

 many days. Mr. Gosse, to whose accurate and 

 long continued oljserv'ations we owe much of 

 our knowledge concerning these winged sprites, 

 states that when turned loose in a large room, 

 they spend nuich time in insect catching ; 

 they dart from their perch, then the snap of 

 their bills indicates a capture, when they 

 again resume their accustomed place of rest ; 

 on an average, tln'ee were captured each 

 minute, although more would have been had 

 they been more abundant. 



Nature is wise in the distribution of her 

 gifts. To the thrush, the mocking-bird and 

 the nightingale she has given the sweet charm 

 of melody, but a homely garb. On the Hum- 

 ming-birds — those tiny sprites — she has con- 

 ferred the rainljow hues of beauty, but has 

 denied the enti-ancing gift of song. Their 

 usual utterance is a faint twitter or an un- 

 musical chirp, uttered chiefly while on the 

 wing ; oftener, however, they are mute. Sev- 

 eral species are said to trill forth an indiffer- 

 ent song, but this statement recjuires further 

 investigation. 



The Trochilidse seem gifted with an average 

 amount of intelligence. The curiosity they 

 often manifest indicates this. If struck at 

 ■while on tlie wing, or if their capture is at- 

 tempted with a net, they will frequently turn 

 and hover about the enemy, peer into his face 

 and dart around the net, evincing much in- 

 terest and curiosity. Human ajijiroaches to 

 their nests also awaken a like incpiisitiveness. 

 Tlieir sense of sight seems strongly devel- 

 oped. The fact that the insects which they cap- 

 ture on the wing are often almost microscopic 

 proves this ; indeed, all their actions, whether 

 flying or sitting, are confirmatory of it. So, 

 too, we may say of their sense of taste. When 

 we consider how much of their sustenance is 

 drawn from tlie deep-tubed flowers, with their 

 bifid tongue, and wliere their sight avails 

 them notliing, and they are wholly dependent 

 upon their sense of touch and taste, we can- 

 not avoid the conclusion that their tongue is 

 an extremely delicate and sensitive organ. 



It would, jierhaps, be trenching too closely 

 on the borderland of imagination to suppose, 

 as some have done, that Humming-birds find 

 pleasure in the mere odors of the flowers 

 among which they spend so much of their 

 lives. We are not persuaded tliat their 

 sesthetical tastes are so highly developed ; 

 we believe their presence in those localities is 

 attributable to a far more utilitarian object — 

 the searcli for food. Tlie sense of smell is 

 very inferior in all birds. Aububon and 

 Bachman's experiments ])roved conclusively 

 that even the common vulture possessed it in 

 a very limited degree, if at all, although its 

 ways of life would indicate the contrary, and 

 general opinion has credited him with highly 

 sensitive olfiictories. 



With the exception of a single species, the 

 food of the Hummers, whether nectar or in- 

 sects, is taken on the wing. Bullock relates 

 that T. Gigas sometimes alights on the flower 

 from which it is feeding. Wlien searcliing 

 for food they often give themselves a brief 

 rest ; they perch upon some slight twig, eitlier 

 of tree or shrub, and carefully preen their 

 plumage, seldom moving from tlie spot where 

 they first sat down. It has been denied tliat 

 their food is ever taken near the ground, but 

 this is incorrect : we have seen it skinmiing 



the surface of small, shallow ponds, catching 

 the small insect triljes tliat frequent them. 



Although theiv usual flight is not very ele- 

 vated, tliey occasionally dart upward on rapid 

 wing to a height of pcrliaps four or five liun- 

 dred feet, wlien the sight can no longer follow 

 them. They seldom alight on the ground, so 

 rarely, indeed, that some ornithologists contend 

 Swifts and Humming birds are the only birds 

 that never do so. A well known authority 

 asserts that he shot it while at rest in that 

 position, and we see no reason to distrust his 

 statement, as his opportunities for studying 

 their habits in their native wilds have never 

 been surjiassed. 



Both in confinement and in their natural 

 state, they often select a particular spot on 

 which to sleep or rest, and generally continue 

 to frequent it for these purposes, and are driven 

 from it with much reluctance; fly-catchers also 

 manifest strong predilections for certain limbs 

 and twigs, frequenting them from day to day, 

 and using tliem as places from whence to make 

 their sallies, and retm-ning to them when their 

 momentary raids are over. 



Tliey are among the most pugnacious of all 

 birds. When two males meet at a favorite 

 fiower bush, a desperate battle is almost cer- 

 tain to ensue, and is well worth seeing. The 

 celerity of their movements during these en- 

 counters almost baffles the keenest vision. 

 They seem to take pleasure in molesting other 

 birds without having received provocation. 

 They care little how large their antagonist 

 may be, but unhesitatingly attack birds ten 

 times larger than themselves. They also de- 

 light in teasing the larger humble bees, but 

 when these become infuriated in their turn, as 

 they sometimes do, and turn upon their annoy- 

 ing adversaries, the Ilmuming birds beat a 

 hasty and inglorious retreat. In sleeping, their 

 heads are drawn back and buried among the 

 dorsal feathers. They clasp the perch "very 

 firmly, for their claws are unusually sharp and 

 strong. 



In the tropics, they pay frequent visits to 

 the extended webs of spiders, in search of the 

 small entangled files to be found there. This 

 habit has given rise to the belief that a bird- 

 catching race of spiders made sad havoc with 

 these living sunbeams, but later and truer 

 knowledge has long since exploded this theory. 

 Xo spider known spins a web tliat can hold 

 for a moment even the tiniest Humming-bird. 

 Even Limiceus held this belief. 



The Sun Birds (Cinnyrido') of Asia and 

 Africa seem to represent, in some degree, on 

 the eastern continent, the Humming birds of 

 America, both in size and brilliant plumage, 

 liut yet the generic differences are broad 

 and marked ; they are also insectiverous, but 

 apart from these general points of resem- 

 blance there is no affinity whatever between 

 them. 



From the impossibility of keeping these 

 beautiful, fairy-like creatures in confinement, 

 nothing is definitely known concerning the 

 duration of their lives ; we are aware, how- 

 ever, that ill most, if not all the species, the 

 males attain their perfect plumage only in the 

 second and third years, which fact, in an ana- 

 logical point of view, leads us to believe they 

 are not so short-lived as their size and ap- 

 parent delicacy would indicate. 



We advise our readers who feel an interest 

 in tills family of birds, to watch the arrival of 

 our usual sjjring visitant; he will surely be 

 here in ^Vjnil, unless the weatlier sliould be 

 unusually inclement : lie will even ignore cold 

 toes and slight snow storms rather than not 

 be here on time ; he will also come in such 

 numbers as to afford every reader of The 

 Farmer ample opportunities to verify all we 

 have said about him, and perhaps other and 

 hitherto unknown facts al.so. By carefully 

 observing his arrival at and departure from 

 the flower garden, the locality of this self- 

 taught architect's summer residence may be 

 easily discovered. An}' attention that you 

 give to his ways of life and general economy, 

 will be amply rewarded in a large return of 

 pleasant and useful knowledge, and a more 

 profound reverence for the great Author of all 



things, who, through such apparently insignifi- 

 cant means, has rendered efficient aid to the 

 husbandman in his "struggle for existence," 

 and conferred upon us all the happy privilege 

 of gratifying, in unstinted measure, our 

 heaven-born sense of the beautiful. — F. B. 

 Diffenderffer, Lancaster, Pa. 



For The Lancaster Farmer. 

 APPLES AND THEIR VARIETIES. 

 Apples have been, generally, keeping re- 

 markably well the present fall and winter. I 

 have kept, even late summer and fall apples, 

 up to this date, February 7th, 1876. They 

 should be kept in a temperature of thirty-five 

 to forty degrees above the freezing point, and 

 in a dry place. We have many new varieties 

 which are foreign to our soil and climate, and 

 which will not do as well as some of our own 

 old varieties — varieties that are to some ex- 

 tent discarded, perhaps, only because they are 

 old. I have asked a nurseryman for the old 

 "Pennsylvania Red-streak," but he said he 

 had none to sell— left them all run out — yet it 

 is this day, in my locality, one of our best va- 

 rieties. I have some of them at this writing. 

 The tree is a fast grower and an early bearer. 

 It also bears every year and is one of the apples 

 for profit. The "Found Apple" is equally 

 good, and needs no commenclation from me. 

 The "Krauser" is a native apple of Bucks 

 county — rather a fast grower and early bearer, 

 in alternate seasons ; a good sized tree will 

 produce from fifteen to twenty bushels, or 

 more, every other year ; a very good apple, 

 white, and juicy inside. The " York Im- 

 perial " is a new apple, from York county, Pa. 

 It is, probably, a seedling of the "Pennock," 

 being of the same shape but not so large, and 

 a brighter red in color ; also a fast grower, an 

 early bearer, and a good keeping apple ; a little 

 rough grained. The " House- Apple, " an old 

 Lancaster county variety, is now rarely seen, 

 if it has not become entirely extinct as a va- 

 riety of general culture. There is, however, one 

 tree so near my premises that you can throw 

 an apple from it on my land. It had twenty- 

 two bushels of perfect apples on it last season, 

 and I had some on exhibition at the February 

 meeting of the Society. They will keep until 

 spring, yet it is an apple that is almost for- 

 gotten. I will mention some of the new 

 varieties which I commenced to plant some 

 years ago: The Baldwin, Hubbertson Non- 

 such, Griest's Winter, Smith's Cider, Russet, 

 Domini, Green Sweeting, Talmon's Sweet, 

 Twenty-Ounce, Khig of Tompkins,Cambridge, 

 Wagner, Black Gilly-flower, Northern Spy, 

 Muuson's Sweet, ISIonmouth Pippin, and Berks 

 County Cider. I graft Russet on the Hubbert- 

 son Nonsuch ; it is a strong grower and a good 

 bearer ; a large dark red apple, very ornamental 

 on the tree, but not a good keeper with me. 

 Berks County Cider is a good sized red apple, 

 a good grower, and a young bearer ; it keeps 

 well up to the presenttime, and is worthy of 

 cultivation in Lancaster county. The Baldwin 

 is a fast grower, and it bears well, but is liable 

 to drop its fruit prematurely. 



A Chester county orchardist had intended to 

 graft some of his trees over again, but limed 

 heavily under them, and that brought them to 

 perfection — a thing worth knowing. The 

 Northern Spy is a fast grower, but its foliage 

 is late in the spring, and it comes late into 

 bearing. I have trees fourteen years out of the 

 nursery which have just lately commenced to 

 bloom. They generally will bear when they 

 bloom the first time. A friend of mine had a 

 tree which bore very little until it was sixteen 

 years old. It is now about twenty, and last 

 year it produced seven barrels of fruit, that 

 brought him four dollars a barrel. The Domini 

 is a new variety and worthy of general cul- 

 tivation, and so are Smith's C'der, and the 

 Twenty Ounce Piiipin. The King of Tomp- 

 kins County is not doing well with me. I 

 grafted them over, on planting them in the 

 orchard. It will do well to plant one Red As- 

 trachan, and one "All-summer." I almost for- 

 got to put in a good word for the " Smoke- 

 house." I also wanted a few Smoke-house 

 trees from a nurseryman, but he had none for 



